And here Maren had thought the night couldn’t get more chaotic. Leave it to Mav to punch a hole in the ground! 

Men and women screamed as they fled the clearing. Even Maren backed away into the trees. Explosions of dust covered most of the area, so visibility was low – especially in the darkness. But moonlight finally displayed one scene: Mav grabbing the Monkey Titan. 

Then something under the ground lurched, and the entire clearing caved in. 

People shrieked, reaching skyward as they fell with the stone and dirt, as if pleading to Titans they’d committed heresy against to save them from their impending tomb. Except Mav. He gripped the Titan closer, then fell into the darkness. 

Maren chugged her water, then leaped into the void. Water spurted around her body, surrounding everything. Her skin drying, she delved deeper, faster than the plummeting rocks. Weaving in and out of the debris, she peered through the darkness. Where was he? 

There! A piece of metal glinted in the fading moonlight, briefly illuminating Mav and the Monkey. Maren drove forward, then – much faster than she’d intended – slammed into Mav. 

“Hold on!” she called, wrapping her arms and water around his frigid body. 

He didn’t respond, instead pulling the Monkey Titan closer with one arm and extending his other out of Maren’s water. He muttered something, then a flame danced in his hand. 

The hollow was wide, but there wasn’t much room to move. Too much debris was cluttering the area above and below them. She continued weaving through boulders and shattered vehicles, downward. She didn’t have enough strength to bring all three of them back to the surface. Even if she did, avoiding these falling pieces of land would be much more difficult going against them than with. 

Then, the darkness vanished. Maren and Mav were still falling, but instead of a relatively small hole, a vast expanse opened before them. An ever-present glow of green and blue filled the space. An underground river ran along the floor, which rose to greet them. 

Mouth drying further, Maren broke out of the debris and glided toward the river. They hit the water as slowly as she could bring them, but it still nearly took Maren’s breath away. 

She hobbled from the river, panting, then plopped down. Solid stone met her touch, stretching for what seemed like miles in either direction. Though, to Maren’s right, debris continued to fall until it reached the hole in the ceiling, caving them in. Thankfully, lines glowing various greens and blues snaked along the wall and floor, illuminating the space. 

Mav stood on one of those glowing lines, gently placing the wounded Titan over it. 

“No, no,” Mav muttered, brushing his hand over the Titan’s wet head. “Not again.” 

Mav seemed uninjured, both from the fight and fall. The only evidence he’d been active was the coating of ice over several parts of his body and his arms and chest being stained with a strange liquid. The Monkey Titan’s breathing was shallow, holding its wounded chest with its abnormally long arms. As Maren came closer, she could recognize the strange color came from the Titan: Blood. 

Not red blood from a human, but gold – discolored in the blue and green hues. The Monkey Titan was bleeding, quite a lot. 

“Please, stay with me,” Mav muttered. 

“Hold it still,” Maren said, grabbing the Monkey’s hand. It glared at her for a moment, then calmed when it met her gaze. It let her pull his hand away. “I’ll clean the wound as best I can, then you cauterize it, and I’ll clean it again.” 

Mav held the Titan down, firmly. Mouth drying, Maren called some water from the river and ran it along the Monkey’s wound. Blood flowed from under its left pectoral, though much of its body was charred. Maren pulled her water away, blackened and golden from the dirt and blood. She then held it down as Mav had so he could place several fingers against the wound. 

“Sorry about this.” His fingers ignited. 

The Titan struggled, but not as much as Maren feared. She held it down while it squirmed, but Mav was done in seconds. The blood had stopped, but Maren didn’t relax until she cleaned and inspected the wound. 

More than half of its upper body was burned an angry red, a marked contrast against its green fur and body. But the filth had been cleaned away and the blood was no longer flowing. Its breathing became easier. Maren held its head in her hands and closed her eyes. Instead of the usual darkness, Maren saw a rushing blue, like a waterfall, flowing over her. Another presence touched upon her, this one green, swirling before her. Maren reached for it.

Pain hit Maren like a hammer to her rib, right below her left breast. It stung and throbbed, but it wasn’t excruciating. Weakness settled over her, but she was strong enough to rest without the fear of never waking up again. 

Maren pulled away, sighing. “He’ll be fine. But he needs to rest.” 

“You can connect with him?” Mav said, washing his hands and chest in the river. 

“He controls trees,” Maren said. “So of course he could bequeath both Land and Water.” 

Maren sat and hugged her knees. The trickle of the river, Mav washing dirt and blood off within it, and the Titan’s slow breathing almost comforted her. Thank God for her nap earlier that day. If she hadn’t dozed off, there was no way she could’ve remained awake now. 

Mav waded from the river, tossing his vest aside. His torso had no ounce of golden blood, not on his broad chest or on his taut abs. Maren shook her head, finding it growing rather warm as Mav sat to her left, though he faced the opposite wall. 

“I’m...” Mav cleared his throat. “I’m sorry I, uh, broke the clearing floor.” 

A new mound loomed over them, made from dirt and shattered boulders instead of destroyed vehicles. It stretched to the ceiling from where they’d fallen. 

“It couldn’t have been all you.” Maren pointed at another hole – probably thirty feet in diameter – in the ceiling, off to their left. “Look over there. And there. This place has several holes like the one we fell into. I bet they all reach pretty close to the surface.” 

“So I didn’t make the entire hole.” Mav hid his face away. “I still destroyed the top of it.”

“The other explosions must have destabilized the ground. It wasn’t like it was just you.” 

Mav looked up, leaning back with his arms supporting him. “Why are those holes there, anyway?” 

Maren shrugged. “Could be for the Titans to easily get to the surface. Could be remnants of a steep passage down here that the Titans were trying to cover.” 

“One that I opened,” Mav pouted. 

“I wouldn’t call that open.” 

Maren didn’t need to wander around the massive mound to know every inch of that hole in the ceiling was plugged. For all she knew, they were stuck there. 

“So...” Mav began, “you think we reached a new Layer?” 

Maren scoffed. “We fell for – what? – twenty seconds. We’re probably only a mile or two down. We’d have to go down a few hundred more miles before we reached a Lower Layer.” 

“Makes sense. Would’ve been cool, though.” 

“But... this could be a passageway to a Lower Layer.” Maren peered down the cave, but couldn’t tell if it sloped downward. “It could be why the Titans were trying to protect it. Man, what President Weaver and Doctor Walsh wouldn’t do to be here if that were true.” 

“They trying to find the Lower Layers?” 

Maren blinked. “You trained as a Peace Keeper and you didn’t know that?” 

Mav shrugged. “Politics bores me.” 

Maren sighed, shaking her head. The country of Talam lay in a world of many mysteries. From what geologists had been able to tell, the planet was relatively solid, but with large patches of hollow segments. The great Wall that surrounded every ocean – which themselves surrounded the six provinces of Talam – suggested that Talam itself was at the bottom of one of those hollowed layers. 

It substantiated old Titanian Church myths that people had originally lived on the surface, but a cataclysmic event destroyed their land and dropped them into a Lower Layer: Layer 0, as people eventually called it. The survivors were Talam’s ancestors, and after the collapse they rebuilt their society. 

But it seemed a relatively peaceful existence wasn’t good enough for some people. Doctor Aisling Walsh – Maren knew all too well – was obsessed with seeing the beyond. She’d do anything to go above the Wall, or into the Greater Depths. 

Anything. 

“Are you hurt?” Maren asked. She needed to get out of her own head. Dangerous thoughts were brewing. 

Mav looked at her. “No, I’m good. You?” 

“Physically? Fine. Everything else?” 

“You mad at me?” 

Maren clenched her knuckles. “You didn’t even come to me about Julio.” 

“You’d have stopped me.” 

“No I wouldn’t have!” 

“Fine. You’d have forced Colton to give you more credits. This was too important for that.” 

Maren turned to him, opening her mouth, but only a strangled noise left her throat. Her arms trembled, frustrated. Why wouldn’t he think that? She’d harped on him for nearly a week about not taking jobs unless it paid. 

“I don’t get you,” Mav said, his back to her. 

“What’s not to get?” Maren found herself saying. 

Mav turned to face her, his dark eyes contemplative. “When I met you, you risked your life doing a job that paid next to nothing. But since then, credits are the only thing you talk about. You’ve been cranky and moody for days. And you never seem to want to do anything except read and sleep.” 

Maren took a long breath. Mav looked like he had more to say. Might as well let him get everything out before she spoke up. 

“But then... you followed me. You put out that fire. You saved my life.” Mav readjusted himself, facing her on his knees, and then he bowed until his forehead touched the floor. “Thank you. I owe you my life twice over now.” 

His bow wasn’t reverence for her false divinity, as so many others’ were. This prostration was out of humility and gratitude. 

“Don’t,” Maren said, her anger deflating. “Please, stop. The first one doesn’t even count. You saved me, you saved all of us, from Sekko’s abomination.” 

“I couldn’t have done it without you!” Mav said, looking up, eyes fierce. “Your plan was the reason we blew that monster to pieces.” 

“The plan only worked because your flames were hot enough to break it apart. And because you were strong enough to burn everything.” 

“And I’d still be frozen if you hadn’t thawed me out.” 

“That pales in comparison to what you did. Besides, you wouldn’t still be frozen. The ice would have melted, eventually. You’d be a slightly warmer corpse by now.” 

Mav’s face was blank, but then he started laughing. Maren found herself chuckling, too. 

“And now you’re the you I met,” Mav said, sobering up. “I’m so confused.” 

Maren sighed. “I... might have been too callous lately. But I’ve never been in charge of people before. Your life is my responsibility. If I can’t provide for us, how can I accommodate another guild member? Or more? I’d like to have at least five or six more members and if I let two starve there’s no way I can take care of seven or eight!” 

“Maren...” Mav started. 

Maren, however, clutched her knees closer to her chest. “And if I can’t get this guild started, then everything is ruined. My dream will die before it officially begins. And you... 

“I took you from your Siblings, from a career that would have given you renown and respect. You’ll be branded as a Deserter for the rest of your life because you joined my stupid little traveling guild. And I... I...” 

Maren found tears forming. Stupid eyes. Why did they persist in leaking when she got frustrated? 

“I didn’t know you felt that way,” Mav said, voice quiet. “I didn’t think you even appreciated it.” 

“Because you won’t let me sleep!” Maren blurted out. 

Mav recoiled, eyes wide. “What?” 

“You work out so early in the morning.” Now that she’d started, she couldn’t stop. “Only about an hour after I go to bed. You’re always so loud it wakes me up and I can’t get back to sleep. I’ve been running on about two to three hours of sleep a night for the last week and it’s made me cranky!” 

Mav’s mouth worked like a fish out of water, the water wheel in his head clogged by a drifting log. 

“I didn’t want to tell you that because I didn’t want to upset you,” Maren continued. “At least on the first day. I was so grateful that you joined my guild I didn’t want to immediately start criticizing you. But then the less I slept, the angrier I got, and the more stubborn I got. I eventually expected you to just understand what you were doing wrong, so I wouldn’t have to say anything and everything could be fixed. But...” 

“You go to bed at four in the morning?” Mav asked, stunned. 

Maren nodded. 

“I thought you went to bed early, like me!” Mav exclaimed. 

“Why would you think that?” 

“You go straight to your tent after dinner and your light’s always on when I’m working out in the morning. I thought you went to bed after dinner and woke up early to read. If I’d known you went to bed only an hour before I wake up, I’d have worked out away from our campsite.” 

Maren looked at the stream. Was it really that simple? Had this conversation really been that simple? 

“I’m so sorry for keeping you up!” Mav bowed again, only his head hit the stone. Fast. 

“No, stop, don’t hurt yourself,” Maren said, grabbing his cold, muscular shoulder. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I’ve been such a bitch.” 

“I’m sorry I made you a bitch.” Mav didn’t rise from his bow. 

A smirk curled her lip, then morphed to a grin, which let out a laugh. Mav rose, a pink mark on his forehead, then joined her. 

“I’ve missed this kind of stuff,” Mav sitting next to her, again facing the opposite wall, but close enough so she could see his face. 

“What stuff?” 

Mav’s eyes grew distant. “You know? Talking. Laughing. In a group and stuff.” 

The hammer that slammed into Maren’s ribs when she connected with the Monkey Titan drove a pike into her heart. One thing she’d promised herself when she left Radiant Dawn was that she would change: gone were the days she holed up in her room, only leaving when she had to and spending time with her friends when it was convenient. 

Ever since what happened to Phoenix, she promised to be a better friend. Yet here she was, repeating her same old pattern. 

“I’m sorry,” Maren whispered, voice and body trembling. 

Mav glanced at her, looked away, then leaned into her a little. His arm was cold and she almost flinched, but the longer it remained, the more it supported her, the warmer it grew. She closed her eyes, leaning into him. 

Then the Monkey Titan stirred, making little hooting noises. 

“What do you think’s happening with the other Titans?” Mav asked. 

“Nothing good.” Maren rose. The Monkey Titan was holding itself up with its arms, gesturing with its feet for them to follow it down the path. “The talk was nice, but now we have some important matters to deal with.”